Brisbane find their mojo with 4-2 win

Date: November 16 2012

Wayne Heming

The A-League's marquee man Alessandro Del Piero lived up to his superstar billing with two spectacular goals for Sydney FC against Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night, but it wasn't enough to stop the Roar recording a 4-2 win.

Unfortunately for the inspirational Italian the Roar found their attacking mojo, netting four times for a much-needed victory in front of 22,970 fans who got more than their money's worth from Del Piero.

One fan was so appreciative of Del Piero's goals he ran onto the pitch in the 87th minute and gave the 38-year-old a hug before he was rounded up by security and escorted off the field.

After losing their coach earlier this week, Sydney slumped to their third straight defeat and are now under enormous pressure to turn their fortunes around and not let Del Piero's talents go to waste.

Del Piero ignited the big crowd in the 42nd minute when he broke free of Brisbane's smothering defence to crack a left-foot shot wide of mesmerised goalkeeper Michael Theo.

It was a classy piece of work by the World Cup-winning superstar, who topped the effort early in the second half with a brilliant goal which cut the lead to 3-2 and again had the big crowd on their feet applauding.

A swivel, half turn, a few steps and he was goal bound, fooling `keeper Theo with a shuffle of his quick feet before knocking it into the net.

Not to be outdone, Brisbane's own super boot Besart Berisha produced some magic of his own with a 56th minute goal that Del Piero would have been proud of.

His 25th goal also made him the club's all-time leading scorer.

In doubt all week with an abdominal complaint which coach Rado Vidosic joked had been cured by some "Balkan tea", Berisha dribbled his way past four Sky Blues before beating `keeper Ivan Necevski with his left foot.

Brisbane had a lucky escape several minutes later when fullback Ivan Franjic picked off a shot by Yairo Yau when it was centimetres from entering the goal.

Del Piero, who thanked the big crowd for turning out, said it was tough trying to come back at Brisbane all night.

"It was not a bad game, but not enough," he said.

The win lifted the two-time champions off the bottom of the ladder following three straight losses but left Sydney FC, who have now conceded 14 goals in their past three games, just one point off the bottom.

Vidosic was a much happier man than he was after last week's 4-1 drubbing by Melbourne Heart, after which he threatened to make changes.

"The first half, the way we pressed the way we moved the ball, it was probably the best half so far in our season," he said.

However he wasn't as impressed with the second half effort, critical of his players' defence and their slow ball movement.

"The mojo was back the first half but it was mojo-less in the second half," he said.

Stand-in coach Steve Corica, who had little time to prepare his players after Ian Crook's shock resignation last weekend, summed up his team's problem easily.

Brisbane's four goals made it 14 Sydney FC have conceded in their past three A-League matches.

"We're leaking too many goals. You can't concede that many goals and expect to win," he said.

"It wasn't a great result for us, but we're not giving up.

"We've got three home games to turn things around and we need a few clean sheets."

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